Before and After by Judy Christie true story behind last year’s bestseller Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. Between 1920 and 1950, the Tennessee Children’s Home Society ran a black-market baby business.  They offered up more than 5,000 children for adoption, many who were taken from poor families, single mothers, and women told in maternity words that their babies had died. Author Christie  documented fifteen family stories of determined survivors who set out to trace their roots and find their true families.